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Getting quotes from a provider sounds simple enough. However, this critical part of the IT procurement process tends to trip up a lot of implementation projects.

For starters, searching or calling up providers or vendors to provide a request for quotation (RFQ) and request for proposals (RFPs) tends to eat up a lot of time – a resource that tends to cost many companies money as it wastes away. Once, potential providers have been lined up, the company looking to implement a project has to go through the due diligence of assessing each bidder’s capabilities to deliver.

This could be tricky as many organizations just do not have the expertise or resources to conduct such an assessment.

Three Quotes from a Plumber: How a Second Opinion Changed the Life of a Woman with a Brain Tumour is the inspiring story of Sally White, wife and mother of two young boys, who has written about. Getting quotes from a provider sounds simple enough. However, this critical part of the IT procurement process tends to trip up a lot of implementation projects. For starters, searching or calling up providers or vendors to provide a request for quotation (RFQ) and request for proposals (RFPs) tends to eat up a lot of time – a resource that.

Outsourcing procurement

One option is to outsource the IT procurement process to a third party.

“It typically takes companies anywhere from three to nine months to turn up quotes for a project from a viable provider,” according to Matthew Eyman, president and founder of 3Quotes, a Canadian consultancy firm established in 2009 that specializes in managing the IT procurement process for customers. “Many firms just don’t have the time or domain expertise to manage all the issues involved in IT procurement.”

3Quotes is essentially a broker between companies looking for an IT provider and the IT providers. Its selling point is that it provides its customers the “acquisition diligence” needed to weed out from a slew of providers the ideal providers for the customers’ needs for the right price. After after going through 3Quotes’ process, the customer is provided with “three quotes” from the best candidates for the job.

3Quotes doesn’t get paid if the customer do not end up saving money and according to Eyman, as many as 90 per cent of his customers see an average savings of at least 20 per cent.

To accomplish this, 3quotes consultants hold meetings with customers to assess their needs, potential issues and cost estimates and then consider product configurations and options. 3quotes’ core competencies are in software, hardware and professional services. The company’s coverage include areas such as data centres, servers, networking and cloud computing, telecom, help desk, client devices, printing, displays and peripherals.

The 3Quotes team works with the client to develop a requirements template which is sent to providers as part of a tendering process. Once these steps are accomplished, 3Quotes starts selecting the providers that will provide the quotes. The whole process is transparent and controlled by the client.

Rapid quote delivery

“We turn around the best thee quotes in less than 24 hours,” said Eyman. “Customers get visibility into the process. They get apples-to-apples quotes and the internal decision to sign-off.”

3Quotes selects providers from its list of trusted Canadian suppliers, providers and service firms that includes the likes of: CDW, Softchoice, Insight, SHI, Compugen, LongView, Acrodex, CGI, TUC Managed Services, Jolera, ProServeIT, Buchanan Technologies, CMS and FlexITy.

Eyman said the market for IT procurement consultants is on an upswing especially as technology becomes more complex and intertwined. Many companies just do not have the time or expertise to throw into the procurement process.

3Quotes has over 225 clients across the country mainly in the corporate, education and public sector. These organizations typically has 25 to 25,000 employees.

Capability over brand

He said in many cases, customers are more interested in acquiring capability rather than a specific brand.

According to technology research company Gartner Research, continued acquisitions among tech companies have opened a lot of opportunities for smaller best of class vendors.

“These opportunities stem from users looking for alternative solutions to large vendors, as well as fear, uncertainty and doubt associated with the initial phases of mergers and acquisitions,” according to Chad Eschinger, research vice-president at Gartner.

Ed Saipetch, senior director, for telecommunications company CenturyLink, said that recently he has seen many companies moving away from the single IT vendor model. However, this has been problematic for some businesses.

“Some organizations tend to get stuck in their search for a vendor. They just end up spinning their wheels and losing time,” he said.

Saipetch said outsourcing the IT procurement process can be a viable option but companies need to be careful.

“Some consultants tend to be very sold on certain vendors. Customers must guard against such biases,” he said.

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3 Quotes Scam Email

The most common request I have from Australians who, like yourself, have considered buying a solar power system is:

3 Quotes Scam Quotes

I’ve got these quotes from XYZ Systems, they seem like really nice guys and have quoted a reasonable price, but given there are so many in the industry, how can I be sure that they are good, honest installers with reliable hardware?

3 Quotes Scammers

Here at SolarQuotes I follow up with all our users who “Get 3 Quotes” and ask them to rate their chosen solar installer, if they went ahead and bought a solar power system and whether it was an installer they were referred to by us or not.

But I don’t stop there. You don’t just want to know how the installation went, you want to know how the solar systems that have been installed perform over time. If something goes wrong, does the installer act promptly? Are the company’s customers getting the performance they were promised from their solar systems? Did their electricity bill go down as much as they had hoped?

After our reviewers have had their solar systems for 12 months, I follow up again, and ask all those questions! Reviews that have been updated after at least 12 months are at the top of each solar installer’s list of reviews, so you can read the most current feedback first.

Hopefully the end result means that prospective buyers such as yourself can cut through the sales pitches and get real peoples’ experiences and opinions of solar installers throughout Australia.

• The reviews database

  We collect reviews of all Australian solar installers whether they are in the SolarQuotes network (i.e. paying clients) or not. You can search our solar installer reviews database here or submit reviews here.

• The ranking tables

  For all our solar installer ranking tables, we only show those who are active in our Australian network (i.e. companies that pay to participate). This is because we want to present a list of installers that we have pre-vetted – and our vetting process is very thorough. We have rejected applications from many Australian installers wanting to join the network as the companies didn’t meet our stringent standards.

• How to find 3 great installers in your area who are in the SolarQuotes network.

  If you get 3 quotes for solar power through our service, wherever possible, we will choose 3 high-scoring installers that provide services in your postcode and who are currently active in the SQ network. With our database of 47,352 reviews, that means that we can be very confident that you will get quotes from 3 fantastic installers, which is reassuring in this industry, believe me. Our free service to you helps take the guesswork out of finding the best company to assist you in harvesting the energy of the sun from your home’s rooftop and slashing your electricity bills! If you’d like to do a little digging yourself, you can also find solar installers with our new search tool.